Ron Bruder & Derek Swingley pointed out that I had misunderstood the Single vs Multiple database thing, and the relationship to SDE vs DBO owned schema.
Since I missed this, and I’ve been using SDE since before they attached “Arc” to the front of it, I’m guessing some other people may have missed this as well (or like me, skipped reading the 9.2 documentation!).
My Logic (Wrong!)
I has assumed that the “single” and “multiple” were referring to the SDE system table repository. Thus, the “Single” database model was the traditional model where the system table repository was in one database – “SDE”. Additionally, I had assumed that “multiple” referred to storing the table repository in multiple databased. This is completely backwards.
How it REALLY works
Ron posted a link to a Forum posting by Derek, in which Derek posted a link to the explanation of this on the ArcSDE on-line docs. Since pictures are worth a 1000 words, I’ve linked the diagrams from that site here (disclosure: these are ESRI diagrams, hosted @ EDN.)
This is the “default” and recommended model at 9.2.
SDE & DBO schema
You can use either SDE or DBO schema with both “single” and “multiple”. Derek also provided a link to web help on this topic. Thanks for getting me on the right track with this!
